White Sox Win! THHHHHHHHHHHAAAAA WHITE SOX WIN!

Ask a racer. Ask any real racer. It doesn't matter whether you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning.

A lot of fans seem ready to mope about this team not being as sharp as the 2005 Champs, but it's tough to argue with the results up to this point: 38-23, right there with Detroit as the best team in the majors. The road to the Central Division title still goes through Chicago. The Sox can wrap up a sweep of the Tribe (and a very helpful 5-1 stretch against their main competition in the Central) with a win tomorrow night on Sunday Night Baseball.

Sox-Tigers Recap

The Sox won the series. Say it a couple of times before hurling yourself off a ledge for the 6-2 loss in the finale.

The Sox took each of the first two games by a score of 4-3, using a mix of effective (though not dominant) pitching and timely offense, supplied in both instances by Alex Cintron.

As for tonight's game, Jon Garland was undone first by lazy outfield play from Rob Mackowiak, who allowed Ivan Rodriguez to advance to second on a routine fly-out. From there Garland inflicted plenty of wounds on himself, allowing a single (which Mackowiak again foolishly turned into a runner on second with an air-mailed throw), then the killer blow of a three-run homer to Marcus Thames. Right now, the most apt comparision for Garland is he is in a phase similiar to Jose Contreras before the All-Star break last season. Would the Sox trade him less than 6 months after signing him to a 3-year extension? I say no. He is the fourth pitcher in this rotation and he is pitching like it right now, but given enough time he will find his way back to respectability. I say by the end of the year he has 13-15 wins and an ERA in the low-4 range.

Additional thoughts on this, the upcoming series with Cleveland, and Brian Anderson (if and when he gets sent down to the minors), will be featured on tomorrow's episode of Soxcast.

The Cubs Picked WHO?!?

In another sign that the Cubs secretly want to be the Sox, they pick Jeff Samardzija (yes, that Jeff Samardzija) in the fifth round of today's draft. Those of you with good memories will note that this is the second time in four years the Cubs have plucked a lifelong White Sox fan from the ND pitching staff (Grant Johnson, product of LT, being the other).

Sox use the 29th pick in the first round to snap up Andrew McCullough, who didn't finish his senior year very strong as Texas was eliminated on the first weekend of the College World Series (much like the Irish), but did go 12-4 in 2005 when the Longhorns won it all.

Who the F*&K is Gerald Laird?

Answer: a goofball catcher who somehow went 4-5 with 2 home runs as the Sox crash and burn in the finale against the Rangers, 10-2. Joe Crede's 9th homer was the only offense and staked Mark Buehrle to a 2-0 lead, but for the second straight start Buehrle could not escape when he needed it the most, letting in 3 runs in the sixth that blew the game open.

So now comes the uber-important six game stretch with the Tigers and Indians back-to-back at Comiskey. We'll have a full preview of this during tomorrow's episode of Soxcast. Check it out!